News From New Orleans: "I'll stay healthy if I keep the house clean."

Check out a very touching story in today's NYTimes: Holdouts on Dry Ground Say, "Why Leave Now?". It's about those who do not feel they are in any danger and yet are being asked to leave. When you read the story, you can completely understand their frustration as many have been helping bail others out for two weeks. Here are some quotes:

Billie Moore, who lives in an undamaged 3,000-square-foot house on the city's southwestern flank that also stayed dry, said she did not want to lose her job as a pediatric nurse at the Ochsner Clinic in Jefferson Parish, which continues to function.

"Who's going to take care of the patients if all the nurses go away?" Ms. Moore asked.

When police officers arrived at her house to warn of the health risks of remaining, she showed them her hospital identification card.

"I guess you know the health risks then," the officer said.

Ms. Moore and her husband, Richard Robinson, have been using an old gas stove to cook pasta and rice, dumping cans of peas on top for flavor.

"We try to be normal and sit down and eat," Ms. Moore, 52, said. "I think that how we'll stay healthy is if I keep the house clean."

Another, Addie Hall, 28, has been flashing her breasts at passing cops to make sure they continue to drive by her home. And then there is Emily Harris, who remains on Desire Street. "I haven't even run out of weed yet," she says.